Theater 180 4/3/14

Analysis of Editing and Intertextuality: City of God

This analysis will focus primarily on the scene Chasing a Chicken.

After a chicken escapes in a favela, Lil Ze and his gang of armed thugs chase after it. The chicken eventually stops in front of Rocket who fears for his life. Rocket is taken aback when, instead of shooting him, Lil Ze instead requests to have his picture taken again. Just when Rocket snaps the picture, a gunshot is heard and one of Zes gang members falls back to the ground. Rival gang leader Carrot and his partner Knockout Ned have begun their attack which breaks out into all out street fight. Rocket manages to slip away into a corner to avoid the gunfire, which is now nearly constant, and begins to take pictures of the skirmish. This is an example of cross cutting as we see that these two lines of action are happening: the firefight, and Rockets attempt to flee. Lil Ze and one of his gang members, Tiago, attempt to flee by stealing a truck. Their plan fails, as Tiago accidentally drives past Knockout Ned and is shot in the head. Lil Ze, who is still in the moving truck, quickly fires off a few shots in Neds general direction in retaliation before Ned leaves his field of view. Lil Zes blind fire missed its intended target, and instead hit the young boy standing beside Ned. Ned hurries to the boys side and comforts him before Carrot runs up claiming that they have Ze right where they want him. As Ned turns around, the boy raises his head and points his revolver at Ned.

There is a close up of the boys face before continuity is broken once again.. We are presented a flashback where the young boy, who is hiding in the shadows, shoots Knockout Ned as he tends to a fallen soldier. Then we are reminded that when the boy asked to join Carrots gang, he gave the reason that he wanted revenge on his fathers killer. Finally, we see one of Carrot and Neds first robberies together where Ned shoots the secu rity guard who has just drawn his weapon. Here it is revealed that the security guard was the young boys father and that the person he had sworn revenge on was in fact Knockout Ned. After the flashback, we return to the young boy pointing his pistol at an unsuspecting Knockout Ned who has his back turned. The boy shoots, and Ned turns around with a look of surprise about the betrayal before falling to the ground. There is a jump cut, and in the next scene it appears that some time has passed as both Knockout Ned and the young boy now lie dead on the ground. We are now given a look at just how deadly this confrontation has been as piles of bodies lay motionless in pools of blood before a cut to Lil Ze being taken captive by the police. The flashback in this scene is important because it gives some insight into the emotional state of the young boy, and shifts the audiences psychological point of view. Before this, Knockout Ned is portrayed as a lone rose among a field of thorns and the idea that anyone could dislike him is ridiculous. After the flashback, however, we realize just how many peoples lives were touched by one misdeed. The audience is now conflicted in choosing to root for either the citys hero, or the young boy who had his father taken away from him.